BBC News and BBC World to merge

[CantGetIn]

Guardian Reporting Dateline London is to be axed, this must be one of the longest running programs on the News Channel?

I believe this was announced some time ago?

[Radio_man]

Here's The Guardian's report on the proposed changes

BBC News and BBC World presenters among 70 staff facing sack
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/j...acing-sack

[all new Phil]

All seems pretty sensible to me. I get the attachment that posters here have to the News 24 days, but a channel of constant bulletins with 2 presenters making jovial chatter between each other just isn’t how things are done now. I fully expect and hope that the new operation has a lot more pace to it rather than the plodding-along channel of old.

A point I made recently that I think is even more relevant now - there’s a tendency here to think of the channel in isolation as something that has to be everything to everyone. Domestic news is already covered via Breakfast, network bulletins, Five Live and the app/online, just like more local news is covered through regional bulletins and the app/online. The news this week and in coming weeks of the Tory leadership election can be just as well covered, if not better covered, through Politics Live being extended on BBC2 for example.

Ultimately we don’t *need* a channel to sit there just in case there’s some relevant-to-the-UK-only breaking news - there are plenty of other outlets for that. I’m pleased we finally get some clarity on that.

[SuperSajuuk]

One thing that has never made sense to me is: why does the bbc staunchly refuse to make BBC World News available in the UK? It’s obviously s commercial operation and not covered by the license fee, so why not make that a pay tv channel that people have to subscribe to, in order to receive it on their stb here?

Separate from any sky/virgin subscription, but you’d put in your unique customer number on your sky/virgin/freesat stb and can then be authenticated to receive the channel. This proposal would make more logical sense than merging channels, because then the domestic channel would focus more on uk stories [or international stories with a uk focus], with slots to focus on purelt international stories like os and context and those who want international stories only from bbc world could just pay for the receiving of the channel.

[itsrobert]

I just can't see this new channel being popular in the UK. I would imagine most British people are interested in UK affairs with an occasional overseas story if it is dramatic (such as a terrorist attack, school shooting, war etc.) or impacts on the UK - and even then, most probably from Western democracies. I mean we wouldn't have had Brexit if the UK was an outward looking country.

To think that most casual, non-news junkie, viewers are going to be interested in this channel is pretty much nonsense unless the UK focused opt outs are significant in duration and happen every hour at the top of the hour and again at the bottom.

Like I said earlier - and maybe it was overly dramatic - but I think Sky News will be the natural choice for anyone who wants to guarantee a mostly UK-focused agenda. And to be honest, it is much more watchable than BBC News and has been for some time. It pains me to say that as I have always loved the BBC but the Corporation is appealing to me less and less.

[Ericak]

 It pains me to say that as I have always loved the BBC but the Corporation is appealing to me less and less.

You've been saying this for 20 years now

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This all sounds pretty sensible and hard to object to. It'll be a world news channel with opt-outs for UK viewers -- eg. for domestic breaking news, and also (some?) sports bulletins. Reading between the lines, I expect at least some of the UK breaking news will be handled by crossing to Five Live, with radio studios set up for TV. The upshot is less duplication of effort/resources across the BBC.

While there's talk of a new channel here, I think viewers will see much the same as what they do today -- with UK viewers getting more radio simulcasts. The bigger change looks to be structural/organisational (eg. the breaking news unit), with perhaps a greater focus on online delivery over linear TV.

In terms of how the consultations play out, it wouldn't surprise me if the end result is more London-based than proposed -- it's hardly popular from an industrial relations perspective to cut positions in the UK, only to hire more people in Washington. I can see that being a place to give ground, while the broad thrust of the changes is retained.

Yep, for all the catastrophising from some, the changes are not especially radical and much better for both sets of viewers than I had feared. BBC World News is basically staying as is, except being renamed BBC News with longer presenting shifts - including extended shifts from Washington and Singapore. I imagine it'll be London-based from morning (05:00 or 08:00) to Outside Source (which I suspect will remain due to the popularity of its relaunched format).

Though not initially, it sounds like the long-term plan for the UK version is to take televised radio simulcasts for many of the hours that are currently independent from BBC One and BBC World News. Nicky Campbell (09:00-11:00) is the starting point, but I suspect that other Radio 5 Live news-oriented shifts are contenders, as well as possibly the PM programme on Radio 4. I also imagine that the radio studios for these simulcasts will be done up in a similar manner to LBC's studios. There will also be the ability to opt-out for live events such as press conferences, speeches and parliament, which will be introduced by either a radio presenter or from a CSO studio.

Spot on. The best thing on the news channel is "outside source" which is a co production with World iirc and there is no problems with the simulcast.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

[itsrobert]

 It pains me to say that as I have always loved the BBC but the Corporation is appealing to me less and less.

You've been saying this for 20 years now

Don't know where you have got that idea from. I was a huge fan of BBC News as I'm sure JamesWorldNews or Newsroom will confirm. I've been a bit bored of the branding for a while now as it's barely changed in donkey's years but up until all this simulcasting it was almost faultless editorially. It's the increasing simulcasts and international-focus that has driven me away as a viewer.

[DTV]

Spot on. The best thing on the news channel is "outside source" which is a co production with World iirc and there is no problems with the simulcast.

I wouldn't stop there, the post-covid format is probably the best BBC News television programme in ages. Not just is it something distinctive, but who would have guessed that people actually want to understand why and how things happened, rather than having to watch yet another panel of f***wits 'discuss' the issues of the day.

Anyway, it seems the BBC cottoned on - the revamped format of the News at Six and Ten seems to be more in the explainer direction, even if the delivery of such segments could be improved (it's incredible that they didn't realise that Outside Source became more popular after they ditched the pointless touchscreen). Newsnight often has good explainers, but could do with more of them and fewer padded out interviews. And Politics Live - there's something that needs starting from scratch.

[harshy]

It will be a shame to see bbc world news go it’s why I got a satellite dish in the year 2000 as I desperate to get away from the boring elephant themed tune bbc news 24, it was at arms length and of course it was my first experience of watching bbc channel with ads so it was interesting and novelty to see bbc news going to a break and coming back from a break, it was just great unique and away from the Uk bbc but obviously still attached.

[Mouseboy33]

Well Im sure SkyNews and the newslets (GBN & TalkTv) will be licking their chops when the merger happens. If I was at SkyNews in their PR dept. I would hammer home that SkyNews is the UKs only 24hr dedicated news channel. I mean you'd have to take a punt at least. (LOL) Even though we know there is going to be Breaking News opt out. But SkyNews could really capitalise on this merger in their favour. Just make good business sense. After all thats what GBN is trying to do calling themselves Britain's News Channel. Im not advocating wrapping themselves in the flag ala'FoxNews, but SkyNews could actually use this their advantage.

[GraemeT]

There’s a tv channel just out of breakfast, politics live, some panorama reruns, news bulletins, news night, click, outside source etc.

Surely the cost of broadcast just to uk audience of this wouldn’t be much?

[DTV]

There’s a tv channel just out of breakfast, politics live, some panorama reruns, news bulletins, news night, click, outside source etc.

Surely the cost of broadcast just to uk audience of this wouldn’t be much?

What you are describing is a mixture of iPlayer and both the current and future BBC News channels. If they really wanted, I'm sure they could edit 30 minute versions of Politics UK or a highlights of the week's Newsnight for weekend and overnight back halfs. You could even do the same for Politics Live. You'd have to define highlights very loosely, but you could do it.

[FrancisC]

Katie Razzall's article on the BBC News website mentions closing the roles of '14 Chief Presenters' - how many 'Chief Presenters' are there in total and who are they?

You don't close 70 roles including the posts of 14 chief presenters and ask an entire workforce to apply for a smaller number of new jobs (as BBC sources have confirmed to me is the situation) if you don't believe that radical change is needed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62161868

[Internationalman]

You've been saying this for 20 years now

Don't know where you have got that idea from. I was a huge fan of BBC News as I'm sure JamesWorldNews or Newsroom will confirm. I've been a bit bored of the branding for a while now as it's barely changed in donkey's years but up until all this simulcasting it was almost faultless editorially. It's the increasing simulcasts and international-focus that has driven me away as a viewer.

Is it ANY wonder then that the new channel is launching in Spring 2023, a time we suspect that the new branding for BBC News will be unveiled?

[London Lite]

The presenter/reporter model is also used at Franceinfo.